VII

"I hear no more the busy beat of time,Nor in me feel the fluttering pulse nor faltering breath."

One moment will not be different from the next in the stillness and quiet of Paradise. And in the quiet of the other world how much we shall regret having had so few quiet times on earth! Why, one of the very busiest merchantsin the City used to be very regular at a daily service. I said to him once: "How can you find time, you, one of the very busiest merchants in the City, to attend daily service?" He said: "I am so busy I must go to the daily service." He felt his business would simply sweep him away if he did not get a quiet time. And Mr. Gladstone, you will remember, kept his Sundays in unbroken quiet, waiting uponGodduring the very busiest period of his life. Without it he would have lost the quiet and strength of his soul. Therefore make your first resolution. "I will listen to what theLord Godwill say concerning my soul." "Speak,Lord, for Thy servant heareth." If you want to have strength and happiness in your spiritual work, wait upon God. And in the silence you will hear the voice ofJesus Christ; you will hear His knock.

Then, when we have heard the voice and recognised the knock, the next thing to do is to open the door. How simple that sounds, does it not? and how difficult it often is! Picture some who have had the door of their souls closed tightly for years. You have to prise thedoor open, and you have to break down the fixed habits of the man who has never prayed except for a few moments or two in his life; how hard he finds it to reverse the habits of a lifetime! Someone who has an old quarrel, through jealousy or something else, with another worker—how hard it is to forgive and begin all over again! But it has got to be done, the door has to be prised or forced, because ifChristis to come in we have to open the door—that is our part in it—andChristwillcome in. And if only we realised how eager He is to come in, and what a power He has to change the heart and control the thoughts and purify the conscience, we should all want Him to come, and we should not spare any time and trouble to get the door open.

And when He has come in, notice this wonderful phrase: "I will sup with him, and he with Me." He does not come in as a transient guest to stay for a little while, and go away, but He comes on a permanent visit, to take up His permanent residence. And although we should not have dared to use the words ourselves, the words "I will sup with him, and hewith Me," describe the most delightful friendship. Do you desire His presence? How often do you come to Holy Communion, how carefully do you prepare for the great gift of the presence ofJesus Christin your soul? Why, I would press this on you, that the supping withJesus Christand He with you which takes place in the Holy Communion is the most glorious moment of your whole day. The first Christians never thought of spending Sunday without going first to Holy Communion. It was the special service on the Lord's Day. It may be that some of you who used to be regular have drifted away from this way of receiving the presence ofChristinto the soul. We know no better way for cherishing the presence ofChristin the soul than being regular at Communion. The humblest communicant comes away from his Communion with the thought: "Christlives in me; I live, yet not I, butChristliveth in me."

Will you, then, take from me these three thoughts, Listening, Opening, and Cherishing the Presence: Devotion, Consecration, Communion?And if you do, I tell you what will happen to your deanery. It will gradually become the most Christian fellowship in London. You will be drawn to one another in a way in which you never have been before. We want more unity in every deanery, so that the parishes may take an interest in one another, and that all Church gatherings may be keen and well attended as by a band of brothers and sisters.

This service now may be the beginning of a new life for the deanery, not only of a new fellowship, and of far greater devotion in your work, and of a joy which you never had before. Christmas in war time is not going to be a merry Christmas for any of us. But there is no reason, if we understand what happiness means, why it should not be a happy one. If these three lessons are taken home, you will as a deanery and individually and as parishes have a joy which the world can neither give nor take away.

"Jesussaid unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die."—St. Johnxi. 25, 26.

"Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." If a man die, shall he live again? There is no time in our history when that has been a more pressing question than it is to-day. Men are dying in hundreds. I can think myself of some as dear to me as if they were my own sons, whose bodies are lying to-day in some Belgian or French grave. And I spend much of my time in going to comfort the widows and the mothers. If a man die, shall he live again? I wonder whether you have ever read or heard read this little poem called "The Army of the Dead":[13]

"I dreamt that overheadI saw in twilight greyThe Army of the DeadMarching upon its way,So still and passionless,With faces so serene,That scarcely could one guessSuch men in war had been."No mark of hurt they bore,Nor smoke, nor bloody stain;Nor suffered any moreFamine, fatigue, or pain;Nor any lust of hateNow lingered in their eyes—Who have fulfilled their fate,Have lost all enmities."A new and greater prideSo quenched the pride of raceThat foes marched side by sideWho once fought face to face.That ghostly army's planKnows but one race, one rod—All nations there are Man,And the one King is God."No longer on their earsThe bugle's summons falls;Beyond these tangled spheresThe Archangel's trumpet calls;And by that trumpet ledFar up the exalted sky,The Army of the DeadGoes by, and still goes by."Look upward, standing mute;Salute!"

"I dreamt that overheadI saw in twilight greyThe Army of the DeadMarching upon its way,So still and passionless,With faces so serene,That scarcely could one guessSuch men in war had been.

"No mark of hurt they bore,Nor smoke, nor bloody stain;Nor suffered any moreFamine, fatigue, or pain;Nor any lust of hateNow lingered in their eyes—Who have fulfilled their fate,Have lost all enmities.

"A new and greater prideSo quenched the pride of raceThat foes marched side by sideWho once fought face to face.That ghostly army's planKnows but one race, one rod—All nations there are Man,And the one King is God.

"No longer on their earsThe bugle's summons falls;Beyond these tangled spheresThe Archangel's trumpet calls;And by that trumpet ledFar up the exalted sky,The Army of the DeadGoes by, and still goes by.

"Look upward, standing mute;Salute!"

And will they live again? I think that what chills our faith, and forms really the only argument that they will not live again, is the dead appearance of the dead. I am perfectly certain it is that that chills the faith of hundreds. The dead look so dead. There is "no voice nor any that answers, nor any that regardeth," and all the attempts, foolish, often even mischievous, to reach those in the other world have ended in utter failure. And, therefore, when we are facing the dead appearance of the dead, we are facing the only argument there is that they do not live again.

I want to say now one or two things that I hope will help you to have a happy view of death, to make you absolutely certain that when a man dies he does live again.

1. And, first of all, remember howdeceptive are appearances in Nature. We might beabsolutely certain, might we not? if we did not know to the contrary, that this earth was quite still. It does not seem to move in the slightest degree, but we really know that the earth is travelling at the terrific speed of nineteen miles a second through space—nineteen miles every second. It does look, does it not? as if the sun was going round the earth quite quickly. But actually the earth is going round the sun. Again, when you blow a candle out, it does seem as if you really put it out. But do you? It is just the one thing you do not do. You do not blow it out. The force in the flame passes into another form. The conservation of force or energy is one of the great truths of science. You do not blow the candle out at all. Therefore even from this lowest ground there is nothing whatever in science that makes it improbable that when a man dies he shall live again. But you may go farther, without leaving what we are taught by scientific knowledge. A man's body is changed every seven years. Yet the man does not change. I look back and remember myself perfectly well as a boy who went to acertain school. And yet not a fragment of my present body went to that school. There must be someone in me that persists, that goes on when the body changes. If I were to cut off my hand I should still be myself; if I were to cut off my arm, my leg, still I should remain. And so if the whole body goes, I am still myself. If we had not anything more than this, we could not prove that men live after death; but there is nothing whatever in the whole teaching of science todisprovethat we do. You might, for instance, notice that an instrument in a room is perfectly silent, but that may be because he who has been playing upon it has gone into another room. There would be no argument in the silence of the instrument for the non-existence of the player. I say that because one of the most touching incidents in my life was when a poor little girl said to me (I have often quoted this): "I feel so afraid of death. I seem to see it coming down on me like a great shadow." For a moment or two I prayed for the right word to say to her, and it seemed to come to me, as it does come at these moments, fromtheHoly Spirit. I said to her: "You would not be afraid if I were to come and carry you into the next room." "No," she said, "I should not." "Well, then," I said, "would you be afraid if someone ten thousand times kinder, and with ten thousand times more strength, should carry you into another room?" When I next saw her she was dead, with a smile on her face. If the player has gone away into the next room, no wonder the instrument does not sound. And therefore, if the body seems dead, it only seems dead because the owner of the body has gone into the next room. It is said in the hospital, as the nurse comes out from behind the screen: "He is gone." He is gone—quite so, he is gone—therefore no wonder his body looks dead.

2. And this becomes all the more certain when you notice that ever since man has existedhe has always believedand felt perfectly certain that he is going to survive death. This is one of the great instincts in humanity. Such convictions always point to some great truth that corresponds to them. For instance, the prayer instinct in man demandsGod. Ithas been beautifully said that, just as the fin of the fish demands the water, and just as the wing of the bird demands air, so the instinct of prayer in man demandsGod. Man is a praying animal. He always has prayed, and that great instinct of prayer demands satisfaction. He always has believed he is going to live after death, and the very fact that that instinct has been planted in him everywhere demands that he shall. There is a very touching story in ancient literature about the great Greek philosopher Socrates. Although he knew nothing aboutChristor the Christian revelation, he had a long conversation, recorded in one of the most ancient writers, before he drank the fatal poison, hemlock. Although he had not the Christian revelation, he gave all the arguments necessary to make everyone around him certain that five minutes after death he would be the same as five minutes before.

3. And this becomes all the more certain when you consider thecharacter ofGod. People often do not realise how much the character ofGodis bound up with this question of immortality. No good man would implant aliving instinct in a child's nature and then love to tantalise and disappoint it. No good man would do it, or think for a moment of doing it; and do you supposeGodwould? Let me read you the first portion of a beautiful letter which I have received from one of the highest in the land, who lost her husband last year, and has lost her splendid son this year in battle. She writes: "Dear and kindest friend, Lord Bishop—I have lingered in thanking you for your letter, because it was so precious, and is always beside me to inspire and comfort. England has gone forth 'obedient unto death' in the honour that befits her, and we must try and be worthy. It does not seem lonely, for they have gone in good company, that great band of brave, shining knights who have given all." That beautiful trust inspires the "Farewell of the Dead," which was written during the early weeks of the war:

"Mother with unbowed head,Hear thou across the seaThe farewell of the dead,The dead who died for thee.Greet them again with tender words and grave,For, saving thee, themselves they could not save."To keep the house unharmedTheir fathers built so fair,Deeming endurance armedBetter than brute despair,They found the secret of the word that saith,'Service is sweet, for all true life is death.'"So greet thou well thy deadAcross the homeless sea,And be thou comfortedBecause they died for thee.Far off they served, but now their deed is doneFor evermore their life and thine are one."

"Mother with unbowed head,Hear thou across the seaThe farewell of the dead,The dead who died for thee.Greet them again with tender words and grave,For, saving thee, themselves they could not save.

"To keep the house unharmedTheir fathers built so fair,Deeming endurance armedBetter than brute despair,They found the secret of the word that saith,'Service is sweet, for all true life is death.'

"So greet thou well thy deadAcross the homeless sea,And be thou comfortedBecause they died for thee.Far off they served, but now their deed is doneFor evermore their life and thine are one."

Now, do you suppose—this is to me an absolutely irrefragable argument—do you suppose thatGodwould have planted the love of that son in that mother's heart, and given her that faith, and then mean to disappoint her? All I can say is that, if He does, He is noGodI could love, nor that anyone could love. The world is in the hand of some foul fiend, who loves to disappoint and blast the hopes of his children. That is not theGodof the New Testament. No, ourLordsays something very touching about that. He says: "In MyFather'shouse are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you." "I wouldhave told you." I would not have let you live all your lives and see your sons die, and your husbands die, and then disappoint you. "If it were not so, I would have told you."

4. And so we are prepared—you see now why I chose that particular text—we are prepared forthe great revelation when it comes. Even science has prepared us. This great instinct of the soul, that it will live again, has prepared us. Our belief in a goodGodprepared us. We were all ready to hear it, and at last it comes from heaven. "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die."

And now we have got it. It has been all led up to; we were all prepared for it. We could not have been certain till we were told it by One who came from heaven. This is the Christian religion. It is no miserable half-and-half Gospel about a good man that once lived. That view ofJesus Christhas nothing to do with Christianity. TheSonofGodcame Himself from heaven.

That is the Christian religion. And, havingcome from heaven, He knows what is in heaven. And He speaks with the certainty of knowledge: "In MyFather'shouse are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you." And "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die."

And, mark you, to prove it, to get the whole truth this morning, not only for your own selves, but for the mourners who abound in our midst, and must abound more and more as the weeks pass—to prove this doctrine that He rose Himself from the dead, we must have the full gospel of Easter. Alas! a new theology has been whittling away the faith of some in this country. But the old doctrine of Easter was this, "David saw corruption, but He whomGodraised up saw no corruption." And as He died and was buried, so He rose again. Why do we keep Sunday, do you suppose, if there was no Resurrection? Why not keep as the sacred day Friday, if nothing happened on Sunday? IfChristdid not rise on that day, why do we have at our Eucharists the Bodybroken and the Blood shed? How could any people enshrine in their Eucharistic service the tokens of a shameful death unless the body buried had risen again? How did the Cross get to the top of the dome of St. Paul's? Why should we have the old gallows erected over the finest city in the world, unless it was the symbol, not only of death, but of glorious resurrection?

Therefore, we have not got to put our reason behind our backs in believing that He who said "I am the resurrection and the life" raised Himself from the grave. It is with our reason as well as with our hearts that we say, in answer to the question, "If a man die, shall he live again?" "Yes, thankGod, he has never really died."

5. And what sort of life is it going to be on the other side of the veil, the veil which hides this unseen world? Those young men who are dying are not always specially religious. They come to church sometimes, and some come to Communion. I had from the front the other day an account of how two hundred and fifty of the Artists' Corps received the Communionbefore they went into battle. But, still, we know many of our soldiers are not what we should call specially religious men. What, therefore, are we to think of the life awaiting them on the other side of the veil? Well, I will tell you what I think. I pin my faith to this:Jesus Christknows them through and through. "Jesusbeholding him loved him" was said of one young man.Jesusbeheld all these boys of ours, all these young comrades, and He loved them. And He knows what kind of life they will enjoy, and He prepares them for the life that is for them. He has something for each that they will be fit for, when, strengthened in character and purified in soul, they are ready to inherit the kingdom prepared for them. You can trust them with Him, you can trust your boy toChrist, who understands him better than you do.

What shall we have in the other world which will correspond to what we have here? One thing at least that we shall have is memory. You remember, in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, Abraham says to Dives: "Son, remember." "Son, remember." Resolve to layup something in your life here to which your thoughts will turn happily and find pleasure in, in the quiet times beyond death. In that stillness there must be no bitter quarrels to remember, no bitter jealousies, no unkindnesses. Make to yourselves, while here, friends from your use of the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when it fails those friends may receive you into everlasting habitations.

And then with memory will come love, all the old beautiful love and friendship which makes us so happy here. But, mark you, the right kind of love—not lust. "Love is the fulfilling of the law," says St. John.

"Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,But Lust's effect is tempest after sun;Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain,Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done."[14]

The two are absolutely different. Love thinks of the interests of the loved one, and is full of self-control and self-restraint. But lust only thinks of self, and is unbridled and unrestrained. Love goes on into the other world.

"They sin who tell us Love can die;With life all other passions fly,All others are but vanity.In heaven Ambition cannot dwell,Nor Avarice in the vaults of hell.Of lust these passions of the earth,They perish where they have their birth,But Love is indestructible.Its holy flame for ever burneth.From heaven it came, to heaven returneth;Full oft on earth a troubled guest,At times deceived, at times oppressed,In heaven it finds its perfect rest.It soweth here in toil and care,But the harvest-time of Love is there."[15]

Therefore cultivate here in your Church life, in your home life, this wonderful, pure, beautiful thing, this love which will last for ever. "They sin who tell us Love can die." And, above all, keep that love pure, absolutely pure and true. Let nothing be substituted for it which calls itself love, but which is not love. Then with this love, this unselfish, disinterested love, the prayer instinct goes on. Do not be afraid of thinking of and praying for your dear boy in Paradise; pray for him.Do you suppose the mother in Paradise ceases to pray for her son here? You know that, in the old beautiful prayers of the Church for her dead, we pray thatGodwill give them eternal rest and peace, and that everlasting light will shine upon them. That prayer instinct that lies so deep here goes on behind the veil. They are praying for us there as we are praying for them here. As St. Augustine says so beautifully, "The Church above loves and helps its pilgrim brothers."

And, then, one thing more must go on—energy and activity of soul. Can you imagine a man like the late Archbishop Temple doing nothing for ever and ever? No. The greatest rest is delightful exercise of the faculties of the soul. And there must be in that other world work for those who have been active here below. Such souls when they are taken from us are being promoted to some work that they are specially fitted to do by the experience which has long worked itself into their souls. I think of two cases of Christians suffering patiently week after week, one for thirteen, the other for fifteen, years. The beautifulpatience being worked into their character will be wanted in the other world.

Then, again, man is born for a Church. He is born to worship here in companionship with others. I hope that this church will be every Sunday morning as full as it is now, that you will more and more join in the fellowship of the saints, and that you will more and more learn to love this spiritual home, and to cheer one another on in your spiritual lives, and so be ready, when the time comes, to worship in the other world with angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven. Lift up your heads and the hands that hang down, all ye mourners! For death is not that miserable, terrible thing which some people think it is. We are born into the other world as quietly as we are born into this. And the other life there is full of happiness, full of love, full of joyous and beautiful activities. And so, when we are called upon to die, it will only be a gentle passing from life here to life there, and from the fulness and the happiness of this life to the still deeper fulness and still greater happiness of the life of the world to come.

"O pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee."—Ps. cxxii. 6.

There is no place in the world to be compared to Jerusalem, if you consider its romantic position, its historical interest, and its spiritual significance. What a relief it is to breathe its mountain air after the hot plains of Egypt! On what a glorious position it stands, more than two thousand feet above the sea, surrounded by hills even higher than the hill on which it stands itself! Truly, still "the hills stand about Jerusalem"—a true image of the way theLordstands about His people.

But it is not the romantic position of Jerusalem which gives it its chief claim to fame,but, even more, its marvellous history. Really, to uncase Jerusalem, to dig down from one Jerusalem to another, to be able to explain the history which would attach to each layer of it, would be to unravel the history of the ancient world. Volumes have been written, and will continue to be written, on this entrancing theme; but suffice it to say that the man who stands, say, at the centre of the Temple site of Jerusalem is standing on one of the most historic spots in the world.

But, after all, when one is speaking in a Christian church at the consecration of a Christian Bishop, it is neither of these things which makes Jerusalem absolutely unique. The Seven Hills of Rome and its Forum might compete with Jerusalem from the point of view of geography or history. No! it is the supreme fact that here, and here alone, on the world's surface, in Judæa and Galilee, the feet of theSonofGodactually trod the earth, which makes Jerusalem unique. Rightly has Palestine been called ever since the Holy Land. When the guardian of the traditional site of the Ascension points out to you thespot which the feet of theLordlast trod before He ascended behind the cloud, of course you know that such tradition is too detailed to be necessarily accurate with regard to the actual spot; but that His feetdidtread the earth about that spot, that Hedidwalk over the Mount of Olives, that Hedidagonise somewhere near those trees in the Garden of Gethsemane, that on one or other of those skull-shaped mounds Hediddie for the sins of the whole world, that either at the traditional site or somewhere near Hedidrise again from the dead—this it is that makes Jerusalem the joy of the whole earth. With ten times the depth of meaning with which even the ancient Jews could say it, the Christian will say: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning; yea, if I prefer not Jerusalem in my mirth." "O pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee."

I. The consecration, then, of a Bishop of the great Anglo-Catholic Church, who is to live in Jerusalem, is an event which concerns the whole of Christendom, and especially everybranch of the Anglo-Catholic Church throughout the world; for it is clear that such a Bishop in Jerusalem has three great and important functions to discharge to the whole Christian world:

1. In the first place, he has to represent worthily, by personal conduct and by reverent and dignified ceremonial, the great branch of the Catholic Church to which he belongs. All branches of the Church meet at Jerusalem; several have their altars by the Holy Sepulchre. How can the other branches of the great Catholic Church learn what is the teaching and the practice of the Anglican branch except from the Bishop who represents her there, and from the cathedral over which he presides? If the Bishop himself has no dignity, no influence, no σεμνότης, among all those dignified and grey-bearded Patriarchs who represent other Churches, the Church of England will suffer in the opinion of the whole Christian Church. If the cathedral church is poor in worship, feeble in life, unspiritual in tone, the Church of England loses caste among the Churches of the world. If, on the otherhand, the Bishop and his cathedral worthily maintain the best traditions of the ancient and apostolic Catholic Church of England, then will the representatives of other ancient Churches gladly acknowledge that "theLordis with her of a truth."

2. But not only has the Bishop in Jerusalem to be a worthy witness to the doctrine of his Church, and in his cathedral to display a winning example of its ceremonial and worship, but he also has to respect and foster the spiritual life in the ancient Churches of the East. He is to be no proselytiser, seeking to take away members of other Churches to form his Church; he is rather the kindly brother, ever ready to lend a hand to fan the embers of spiritual life in other Churches, or to rejoice in the fervent glow on other altars besides his own. No Bishop would be a fit Bishop in Jerusalem who had not some knowledge of the history of the ancient Churches of Christendom, an interest in their varying liturgies, and a deep respect for their history and the special significance each has in the life of the Catholic Church. On the other hand, thatBishop would have a peculiar glory in his episcopate who most succeeded by brotherly sympathy and inspiring example in stimulating life in an ancient Church, where, perhaps, life was running low, or was able to send up the sap once again through the fibres of an apparently withered tree.

3. But his efforts must not stop there. The Bishop in Jerusalem must be a missionary. If from the first the Gospel was to spread throughout the world, "beginning at Jerusalem," Jerusalem must never cease to be a missionary centre. There must be no faithless despair as to the eventual conversion both of Jews and of Mohammedans; the great heathen tribes of the Shellooks and the Dinkas of the Upper Nile, up to which the diocese, with its centre at Jerusalem, at present extends, even though it must be exercised for the most part through the presence of an assistant Bishop in Khartoum, must feel the missionary zeal of the Bishop in Jerusalem. Every missionary agency within thousands of miles must be certain of his fatherly interest. I have visited myself nearly every mission station from El Obeid, five hundredmiles beyond Khartoum, to Beyrout, and seen how greatly was appreciated the genuine interest of even a passing Bishop; but those mission stations must feel sure of the interest of the Bishop whose "sedes" is at Jerusalem, and above all, of course, those must feel sure of it whose missions are connected with our own Church. Few people can have visited the magnificent mission hospital of the London Jews' Society in Jerusalem, which is said to be the finest mission hospital in the world, or seen the devoted work of the representatives of the Church Missionary Society in Cairo, or watched the mission schools of the Hosanna League on the Lebanon, without being proud of the missionary zeal and spiritual efforts of our own Church.

II. But on a day like this we are at liberty to see visions and to dream dreams, and one can imagine missionary efforts which have their centre at Jerusalem on a far more extensive scale than any which have been possible as yet—missionary efforts which may include the revival of the ancient Churches of Asia Minor, the linking up with the work done by theArchbishop's Mission to the Assyrian Church, and a far more complete subjugation toChristof the Lebanon district, to which Canon Parfit's and Canon Campbell's schools seem to point the way.

Such, then, seem to be the possibilities and prospects of a Bishop in Jerusalem, and we are encouraged to raise our hopes high to-day, first by the wonderful blessing which has been granted to the work of him who is laying down the pastoral staff, wielded with so much tact and love and winning influence by Bishop Blyth for a quarter of a century; and, secondly, by the experience and attainments and standing of him who this day takes up the pastoral staff which Bishop Blyth lays down.

1. And first with regard to Bishop Blyth himself. It was said to me in Jerusalem of the Bishop, by one who has long been the superintendent of the Church missionary work in Palestine: "He has laid a splendid foundation on which a success can be built." Few can realise, who have not been at Jerusalem, the dignity and beauty of St. George's Cathedral, which Bishop Blyth has built, andthe charm of the daily services in it, morning and evening, at which the choir consists of the delightful Syrian boys and girls who form the schools. I have never seen boys more like English boys in their keenness for games (they were quite invincible at football) and their general manliness of tone, and under the gentle tutelage of English ladies the Syrian girls are being trained to be well-mannered, and capable teachers, whom I frequently found teaching either in Palestine, on the Lebanon, or in the schools of Egypt and the Soudan. But, in order to understand the influence accumulated by Bishop Blyth during these long years of residence in Jerusalem, you had to visit with him the Patriarchs of other branches of the Church; everywhere you found him trusted and loved; to come with his introduction was to be welcomed by all the ancient Churches of the East, and it is certain that, just as it was said of Livingstone that "he left the door open in Africa for all the white men who should come after," so it is certainly true that Bishop Blyth has left behind him, among all the representatives of theancient Churches of the East, open hearts into which his successor can enter. And we are glad to think that we still have the Bishop resident with us here in London, to give us his counsel and advice.[17]

2. And then, with regard to his successor, he is no tyro going out to learn his work for the first time; he is already one of the best-known missionaries in the whole of the nearer East; he has for years been the superintendent of the Church missionary work in Egypt and the Soudan; he has had the control of many workers, and has had, moreover, thousands of pounds passing annually through his hands. He is a good Arabic scholar, and can not only take services, but can speak and preach freely in Arabic, and what that means in the East every traveller knows. His long experience of dealing with the Coptic Church in Egypt, and the great respect in which he and his colleague, Mr. Gairdner, are held in it, are a certain guarantee of the respect and loving reverence with which he will treat the other ancientChurches of the East; and he has himself assured us, in words which have been printed and circulated, that, so far from wishing in any way to alter the simple and beautiful service in St. George's Cathedral, he will love to fan and foster the flame of devotion which will always burn, it is hoped, more and more brightly at the central shrine of the Anglo-Catholic Church in this city of Jerusalem, which is itself the cradle of the Christian Church.

It is therefore, dear brother, with very high hopes and many earnest prayers we send you forth to-day. The horizon is clouded at present with the heavy clouds of war;Christ'swork will be crippled for a time, and further extension for a time will be impossible; but when the great clouds of war have, in the mercy ofGod, rolled away, and the Sun of Righteousness has arisen with healing in His wings, and Christianity has been proved to be more than ever essential to the prosperity and well-being of the world, then we believe thatyouare singularly fitted in the providence ofGodto avail yourself of the mighty opportunity which will open out.

"O pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee." There will be many who will pray for its peace from to-day more fervently than ever, and they will uphold your hands as they pray it, as Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses; and if, as we believe from the bottom of our souls,Godwill hear that prayer, then Jerusalem shall once again be built as a city at unity with itself, and from the farthest bounds of the earth there shall come, at least in spirit, "turning their faces thitherward," more and more every year, the converted, thankful and adoring "tribes of theLord."

The Eyes of Flame[19]are resting upon us; we do not want to get away for a moment from that thought as our central message. But get away from the idea that "the Bishop is asking us to come for a Quiet Day." As I believe events have proved, it isJesus ChristHimself going round the diocese in the power of theSpirit. Wonderful things have happened on these Quiet Days. Men have been so struck to the heart that they have resigned their livings; they have seen what they ought to have been, and with the aid of theHoly Spirit, before the Eyes of Flame, have contrastedthat with what they are. If it isJesus Christcoming round, then we cannot be too quiet on such a Day in listening to His voice all the time. It is therefore with the Eyes of Flame resting upon us and with the prayer "Speak,Lord, for Thy servant heareth," "I will hearken what theLord Godwill say concerning me," that we will think over three things that we are expected to be. And the first is aMessenger. You will remember that, when we first stood before the Bishop for ordination, we were told of a great treasure that was committed to our care. We have spent much time thinking over that treasure.[20]We were reminded that we were to be messengers, watchmen, stewards. Now we will simply take the title "messengers."

Let us picture the messenger; let us forget the tame surroundings and monotonous features of the life we lead, and picture ourselves as real living messengers. We might take one of our despatch-riders. Few things are more really splendid than the way the undergraduatesof Oxford and Cambridge are doing most of the despatch-riding at the front—our own boys, we may say, have been carrying the despatches during this campaign. It is very dangerous work. One of the boys whom I have known all his life is now a despatch-rider in the war, having to take these messages at any cost. Everything depends upon the despatch getting there. The whole brigade will be cut to pieces if the despatch is not sent there. They only send despatches for the most urgent reasons. There the despatch-riders are in the darkness, threading their way through all the great holes made by the shells, pushing on to take the despatches. They are messengers with a vengeance, taking their lives in their hands, realising the vital importance of getting their message through.

Now, I am going to take a particular messenger because his character and life are very carefully described to us in detail by one of our great poets. I think it will come home to us more if I can describe the picture of the messenger of Athens given us by Browning in that wonderful poem "Pheidippides." Itmay be more familiar to some than it is to others. I will just sketch Browning's picture. Pheidippides tells how he started on a mission of absolutely vital importance, and the whole problem was to get to Sparta in time to get help. He dashes off, and stands before the Spartan Senate.

"Persia has come!Persia bids Athens proffer slaves'-tribute, water and earth;Razed to the ground is Eretria; but Athens, shall Athens sink,Drop into dust and die—the flower of Hellas utterly die,Die with the wide world spitting at Sparta, the stupid, the stander-by?"

It is a matter of absolute life and death, and that is the first thing about the messenger I want you to notice. Either he got there or he did not; either he persuaded them or he did not. He gave his message, though he did not succeed in persuading Sparta to undertake the needed help. The fate of his country depended entirely upon his effort. There is something glorious in his absolute devotion to his country. Then, when he had given his message, he waited for the answer, and he is described as quivering with eagerness:

"The limbs of me fretting as fire frets, an inch from dry wood."

That expresses the keenness with which he waited for the answer. And the answer, which, as you remember, was an evasive one, counselling delay, is thus characterised by Pheidippides:

"Athens, except for that sparkle—thy name, I had mouldered to ash."

Then, having done everything he could, he dashed back to tell them at Athens that Sparta was not coming. We see the utter abandonment of the messenger:

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